


aut regem aut fatuum

by staccato



Series: things i'll never finish [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Rebirth, Second War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 20:40:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11562939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staccato/pseuds/staccato
Summary: How did this become his life? Harry wondered, as he mutely watched the lover of his 21st life kill the birth parents of his 22nd life.





	aut regem aut fatuum

“Well, that didn’t go as planned, did it?” Harry drawled.

Draco Malfoy whirled around, his left hand shutting the door of the Vanishing Cabinet behind him while his right hand aimed his wand at Harry’s neck. “Immobulus!”

Harry deflected the spell with the tip of his wand, sending it flying to the other side of the room. He raised one eyebrow, unimpressed, "as I was saying-"

Malfoy interrupted by casting _again_ , “Petrificus Totalus!”

Harry deflected that, too. “It would help if you stopped yelling out the incantations so loudly, you know," he said, trying his best to imitate the infamous Malfoy drawl. He wondered, briefly, if it was a part of the Malfoy Pre-Hogwarts Education, along with lessons on Pureblood etiquette and How-to-be-a-Dick-to-Orphans-Muggleborns-and-Blood-Traitors. He was sure Abraxas and Lucius both spoke similarly.

Well, when they weren’t groveling at Tom’s feet, that is. Now _that_ sound was something else.

Harry chuckled at the memory of _the_ Lucius Malfoy, unofficial right hand of the Minister of Magic, kissing Tom’s feet. The act seemed to anger the little Malfoy, for he suddenly shouted, “Crucio!”

Harry watched impassively as the spell fizzled out before it could reach him. Malfoy turned an impressive shade of red, and Harry’s amusement grew. “You actual need to mean it for it to work. Now, Malfoy, let’s talk.”

He summoned Malfoy’s wand into his hands, but before he could get another word out, the Slytherin turned heels and bolted away.

Harry stared after him for a solid five seconds before the shock wore off. The boy was, he admitted, fast. When and where had he learned out to run? Lucius Malfoy surely would have scorned any and all attempts at such a plebian activity. Either he had good instincts, or he had disobeyed his father; both options surprised Harry.

(Though he wasn't surprised that Malfoy didn't know how the room worked. This was the Room of _Requirment_. All he had to do was request an exit, and the room would provide one, even with a brightly lit sign if he needed, and _where was the boy going?_ )

Nonetheless, such Muggle reactions was no match for magic. Harry lifted one of the wands and casted a nonverbal Imperio. Immediately, Malfoy stopped and stood still, eyes glazed over and lips smiling dreamily, waiting obediently for an order.

“Come here,” Harry said, and so the boy did.

“Hold out your hands,” Harry said.

“Give this letter to the Dark Lord,” Harry said.

He tucked Malfoy’s wand back into the boy’s robe pockets, not bothering to cast any more spells to erase the fact that the wand had been used to cast an Unforgivable. Then he left the room.

The reply came a week later, a day after Tom called his Death Eaters together for their annual End-Of-Year Report. Severus Snape had passed the scroll to him in secret, staring at him intently all the while. Harry blocked his legilimency attempts easily—he had no idea while this body found occlumency so difficult, and was glad he retained his past abilities in every new body he gained—and smiled when Snape gave up in frustration. He pulled the string apart in the safety of his bedroom in Grimmauld Place, the heart of the operation for the Order of the Phoenix.

“Astra inclinant, sed non obligant,” was written in neat Parselscript.

_The stars incline us, but do not bind us._

**Author's Note:**

> The title came from a quote by Seneca, a Roman philosopher. The whole quote says, "aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere," which translates to "a man ought to be born either a king or a fool."
> 
> Also, I know this is short. I'm hoping that if I had to write less, I would update more often.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and don't forget to hit Kudos if you liked. Any and all comments are greatly appreciated.


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